


Sea-sense

by GraceEliz



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Norrington centric, Tags to be added, The British Navy, elements of magic, pirates!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 08:24:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19081216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraceEliz/pseuds/GraceEliz
Summary: The first time James Norrington feels what his mother called the sea-sense hum in his chest is when he encounters a boy named Will. The second time is also the first time he recognises the sea-mark, and it lies on a pirate. A pirate, of all people, who James is in denial about sharing blood with.





	Sea-sense

**Author's Note:**

> I've been trying to write this for ages, I hope I can keep on top of the updates.

When he is assigned to the Caribbean he is conscious that his twin sister is going to miss him as much as he misses her, and that he’ll be inviting her over to Jamaica as soon as they both turn 19 and their father will finally have absolutely no control over them. He received news of his brother Archibald’s engagement in the mail a few days before leaving port and he’s genuinely very happy for him – his wife-to-be Caroline cares as little as Archie does for society and any children they have will be clever and kind and raised to look beyond surface appearances. It will be a surprise if they avoid the sea even with Caro’s very land-oriented influence. The whole Norrington line is tied to the sea, and his mother said that she was a Teague sailor before she married and her brother was lost at sea many years ago. (James knows it isn’t true because he heard it direct from her. His uncle turned pirate. He despises pirates of any type but until he has a high enough rank he can’t do anything about the ones in plain sight pretending to be gentlemen so the Caribbean breed will have to suffice). Archie studies the seas around Britain, Father is the current Admiral, and the other Norrington is a complete wastrel with fewer morals than most thieves and a penchant for taking his anger out on his wife. James hates him with a vehemence he tries to avoid. His mother, as she lay dying, told James he was the last of the line. Teague blood makes itself known once a generation, she said, and you two are it - my twin and I had the sea-mark too. James still has no idea what a sea-mark is. 

The rather depressing journey from Bristol is made less tedious by the presence of an eleven or twelve year old girl, daughter of the new Governor of Jamaica, moving with her father to Port Royal. She has no mother, and James is still raw at the loss of his own so he doesn’t pry and instead teaches her about sails and rope and how to read the sky for danger. She always looks so awed by his knowledge, and he may be the youngest lieutenant in the Navy but he’s fairly sure he isn’t that impressive. James helps her read maps, identify sea creatures, know the different parts of cannons and guns. Her father isn’t impressed by all the unladylike knowledge Miss Elizabeth Swann is accumulating, but it isn’t at all harmful and the knowledge of armaments may well save lives one day so James keeps the lessons up. It gives him something to focus on. His mother always told him the sea would set him free, but he doesn’t feel free yet. The uniform never feels constraining; the ship feels like home. One day, James will be a Captain of his own vessel, but until then he chafes silently under another man’s command. One day he will direct his own steps. One day, no Norrington will suffer under any man. 

He misses his sister, his little nephew.

He misses the green hills of his home.

He misses, and misses, and misses, until one day smoke smears dark smudges on the horizon and that _thing_ inside him hums like the edge of a swung blade. The crew hisses and whispers, sibilant as the sea itself, and as James leaps onto the rail to get a better view of the scene he realises that the _thing_ humming around his innards must be the sea-sense his mother spoke of, guiding him safely and successfully over the ocean. Even as he disregards the muttering of the crew about pirates, he finds that he knows deep in his stomach that pirates it was. Deeper even than that, somewhere he could never consciously reach, he knows the difference between a good pirate and a bad one – and that these pirates were bad indeed.

A young boy is brought onto ship, waterlogged like sea-sponge, and the sea-sense snarls in his chest. Successfully managing not to just slide a dagger in the child’s chest and be done with it, he directs the boy into Miss Elizabeth’s tender care. James allows a few moments for Elizabeth to wake the boy and see what she gets out of him. A prettyish girl his age might encourage the boy to talk; redcoats just make people tense. Elizabeth makes a sharp movement, the sea-sense sings in unison with the blade at his hip-

Silence. It leaves him, empties from his abdomen, as the boy loses consciousness again and falls back on the deck. James sighs. At least the rest of the trip won’t be completely boring, with a young potential pirate to interrogate. 

“What did he say, Miss Elizabeth?”

“Nothing, really. Sir.” She’d taken to behaving like a young midshipman, because it annoyed her father and she enjoyed riling James up until his jaw tightened into stone. “His name is Will Turner.” _Listen_ , whispered his sea-sense, _listen, for this boy-child is of the sea_. James nodded sharply. Miss Elizabeth would have charge of Turner until they got to Port Royal. After that…. Well. The tides will tell, as his mother said.


End file.
